Time and Tasks

Famous TV personality Oprah Winfrey says: “How you spend your time defines who you are."
Michael Althsuler says: "The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." -
And a wise guy says: “Don't worry about tomorrow. IN some parts of the world, today is already their tomorrow.”

Book author Stan Toler says: “To say that time is money is an insult to the power of time. Leaders know that time is their most precious commodity, valued even above wealth. They hold the currency of twenty four precious hours in their hand and they know very well that the use of these hours will determine success or failure, want or gain.
These are the same people who:

1. Start meetings on time and end on time.
2. They use an economy of words knowing that using 10 sentences to say something when one sentence alone delivers the job is a waste of time.
3. They spend time preparing their presentations making it relevant, useful and interesting but they also make it concise.
4. They respect the time of other people too.
5. They plan their time well, they have an agenda and nothing is done without a purpose.
6. They know when their prime time is and work at their best and they also know when their relax time is as they pause to regroup physically and mentally.
7. They stick to their quality time for their family and never get things mixed up in their schedule.

Killing time is a capital crime and Thomas Edison says it right:
“Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait.”
Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.
But now I want you to think about this. While spending time wisely is one factor for success what about another equally important factor called TASKS?
Let’s talk about Tasks this time.
Every time you think of tasks, think of one word: “Priority!”
Effective leaders do the important thing first.
Ineffective people do what they like doing first. It’s easier this way.
Many important things that need to be done are not pleasant and fun to do. But effective leaders prioritize this. Ineffective leaders deal with the less pleasant and less important things first giving them a semblance of productivity. They are busy all right but they are not busy on the important things. Don't mistake movement for achievement. It's easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what?
There is a big difference between what is urgent and what is vital. Just because something is urgent may not mean it is important. And just because some tasks can wait does not mean it is not vital.
Effective leaders ask this one important question: “If I can accomplish only one thing today, what will it be?”
Time and tasks. Aren’t these the most important things we deal with on a daily basis yet guess how many people squander it?
Something will master and something will serve. Either you run the day or the day runs you; either you run the business or the business runs you.
Learn how to separate the majors and the minors. A lot of people don't do well simply because they major in minor things. Days are expensive. When you spend a day you have one less day to spend. So make sure you spend each one wisely.
Each day is a gift from God but we do not waste the gift and throw it away.
We make the best use of it.

Enjoying Christmas

One day in America, this conversation from women passing by a storefront nativity scene was overheard. One of the ladies said: ”Now they're even trying to bring religion into it!"  (Duh?!)
How strange that people would think that Christmas is one giant party without understanding what the celebration is really all about.

Yvonne Chiarelli says “Our lives are busy all year long. How do we fit those things that we do once a year in an already overcrowded schedule? How do we fit in more time for shopping, wrapping, decorating, cooking, planning, partying, and traveling? It's no wonder the holidays bring additional stress to many.”
She’s right.
Only a few people I know would take time this Holliday season to be still and be thankful for understanding the reason for the season. I’m sure many would spend the days worrying about what our economy will be next year.
Many business people are saddled with cash flow problems.
Uncertainty looms over the air.
Mergers and acquisitions will displace many people in their current positions.
Low sales, a weak economy and little purchasing power will force companies to continue with their personnel liposuction activities.
Listen.
Take time out. Let’s devise a strategy here so that we will not be spending the holidays in woes and sorrows and miss the true spirit of the occasion.
Enjoy the holiday season by doing the following things:

• Say no to meetings that aren't holiday celebrations.
• Say no to requests that could be done after the holidays.
• Say no to the routines that don't add to or support your holiday experience.
• Say no to the non-essentials.
• Say no to the season's aspects that don't appeal to you.
• Say no to inappropriate and unreasonable expectations.
• And then:
• Say yes to gratitude.
• Say yes to allowing others their desired holiday experience.
• Say yes to taking care of yourself.
• Say yes to wider boundaries and higher standards.
• Say yes to the parts of the season you enjoy the best.
• Say yes to giving thoughtfully and accepting gifts with grace.
• Say yes to expressing your best to others.
• Say yes to forgiveness.
• Say yes to fun.

Handcraft the holiday experience of your choice.
Here is a success formula for enjoying the holidays:
Let go of what's not absolutely necessary. Participate with your family, friends, and colleagues. Smile and laugh a lot.
But the best suggestion is to understand what the real significance of Christmas is.
Let me present it to you based on the words from a Christmas card:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Notice this, as a child He was born of a virgin, as a son He was given.
The manger gave way to the cross many years later when He gave His life for us so that we may be saved.
And this is why the real meaning of Christmas is that the Savior has come but the real meaning of Christianity is not the manger but the empty tomb.
No, it’s not about the gifts and the parties, it’s not about cash flow, it’s not about stocks inventory and it’s not about our failing economy.
It’s all about putting accepting the Prince of Peace and allowing Him to reign in our hearts so that we may spend the rest of eternity with Him.
Then and only then do we enjoy Christmas.

SOME THINGS YOU KEEP

I don’t know why but at the start of the year I carry what I call “The Urge.”
Maybe you have it too.
Now what is “The Urge?”

It is the compulsion within me to clean up my desk, my cabinet, and my things, throw away the stuff I don’t need and bring out new stuff in preparation for the New Year. I am pretty sure this is the soul’s desire of wanting to start the year with a new slate. To throw away what did not work and hopefully work on those that would.
And so with my waste basket ready I begin to throw away unwanted things but as I look through my stuff I realize that no matter what happens, there are some things you keep.
You cannot just throw them away.
It looks like I am not the one who entertains the sentiment.
An unknown author wrote about this and I would like you to read her words carefully:
“Some things you keep. Like good teeth. Warm coats. Bald husbands. They're good for you, reliable and practical and so sublime that to throw them away would make the garbage man a thief. So you hang on, because something old is sometimes better than something new, and what you know is often better than a stranger.
These are my thoughts. They make me sound old, old and tame, and dull at a time when everybody else is risky and racy and flashing all that's new and improved in their lives. New careers, new thighs, new lips, new cars. The world is dizzy with trade-ins. I could keep track, but I don't think I want to.
I grew up in the fifties with practical parents -a mother, God bless her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it - and still does. A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones. They weren't poor, my parents, they were just satisfied. Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers and tee shirt and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one's hand, dishtowel in the other's. It was a time for fixing things - a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress.
Things you keep. It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant there'd always be more. But then my father died, and on that clear autumn night, in the chill of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any 'more.' Sometimes what you care about most gets all used up and goes away, never to return.
So, while you have it, it's best to love it and care for it and fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick. That's true for marriage and old cars and children with bad report cards and dogs with bad hips and aging parents. You keep them because they're worth it; because you're worth it.
Some things you keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate you grew up with, there's just some things that make life important....people you know are special....and you KEEP them close!” End of article.
This got me thinking.
Here is how I look at it.
Things you can keep and throw away because they are no longer useful.
But people you keep because they are not things.
Isn’t it sad when the moment you leave your company you burn all your bridges and throw away the many years of friendship you have had with your bosses and peers?
Isn’t it sad when the moment you leave your church the same people you loved and helped are now the very ones who set out to destroy and discredit you?
Isn’t it sad when a conflict in the family whether business or relational, breaks it apart and now the love is replaced by hatred and loathing?
You can throw away things but some things you keep close. And they are not things but people.
Two things are hard on the heart... running up the stairs, running down people.
Love people and use things. Do not use people to love things.
Some things you throw away but the relationships you keep.
This is how you start the year with a clean slate.
This is why God’s mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness.

Your Past Will Come To Haunt You

Here are some thoughts to think about. People mouth clichés all the time. They use it even without thinking.
Today I will challenge you to think through what you say. So listen to this carefully.

1. When something is "new and improved," which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it.
2. When people say, "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too." What good is a cake you can't eat? Should I eat someone else's cake instead?
3. When people say, "It's always in the last place you look." Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?
4. When people say, while watching a movie, "Did you see that?" No, I paid P120.00 to come to the theatre and stare at my popcorn. What did you come here for?
5. People who ask, "Can I ask you a question?" Didn't really give me a choice, did they?
6. Experience is the best teacher. Not really. As a country we’ve had a lot of experiences before but why do we never learn? Only evaluated experience is the best teacher.
7. Practice makes perfect. I don’t think so. Just ask a golfer with a faulty swing. Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent.

Consider the following oxymoron and think through it.
Act naturally – How could you do that? Act and then be natural? Now think through the following words:

• Found missing
• Resident alien
• Advanced BASIC
• Genuine imitation
• Modern Antique
• Safe sex
• Airline food
• Good grief
• Same difference
• Almost exactly
• Government organization – were they ever organized in the first place?
• Sanitary landfill
• Alone together
• Legally drunk
• Silent scream
• Living dead
• Small crowd

Some times we speak words that were never well thought through. And many times we do things without thinking through it either. This story will illustrate what I mean.

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices an attractive woman waving at him. She says hello. He's rather taken aback because he can't place where he knows her from. So he says, "Do you know me?" To which she replies, "I think you're the father of one of my kids."
Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and says, "My God, are you the stripper from my bachelor party I slept with while my buddies and I were stoned crazy and getting drunk?"
She looks into his eyes and says calmly, "No, I'm your son's teacher .."

Oh-oh. Somehow your past will come to haunt you.
Maybe because you never thought through what you did.
Here’s the key.
We’ve done some pretty stupid things in our life and this is the honest truth. We’ve said some stupid things we were not supposed to say. Things we said and things we did that we are not proud of today. These things may come to haunt us today.
Deal with it. Ask forgiveness, make restitution and then move on. No one can live victorious lives if they are anchored on the past.
Everyday offers a brand new start. God is the God of second chances and this is why I love the part of Scriptures that says “His mercies are new every morning because great is His faithfulness.”
Don't live in the past... you have already been there. Don’t just move forward. Move upward!

Giants Begin With Baby Steps

Giants Begin With Baby Steps

There are celebrity sales people who bring in tons and tons of sales and as a result they make tons and tons of money. They are the giants in the industry. And then there are those who would make a sale once in a while and then wonder, what is it with these people who continually rake in the sales and make the money?
Is it luck? But no one gets lucky all the time the way they do. Is it connection? Maybe. But how do I get myself to increase my own network too? There must be something behind it. And so the question pops out in your mind. “How do these people continue to make six or seven figures and here I am struggling month by month just to reach my quota and make ends meet?”
I have been in the human potential development for so long I see things in common among all successful performers whether they be people in sales or in any field of business.
First of all, successful professionals see themselves as who and what they really are. They are professionals and they hold their craft. They have confidence and they know they can achieve greater things.
Secondly, these giants of the industry continue to learn and stretch themselves. They network with people. They serve in their community. They join service clubs, they serve in church and the more they are in touch with people the more they build their network of friends who may just become their clients one day.
I have handled sales people, I have a network of people who are in sales. And it’s extremely rare for me to find person in this chosen field to actually read a lot of books. Rarer still do I find sales people who would invest in attending non-company sponsored seminars. And in many occasion, the same people who do not perform well are the same people who complain that their companies are not providing them support. Amateurs carry this kind of mindset. They have mastered the art of blamestorming.
Not so the giants because they are professionals. Professionals are of a different breed. They’ve got classy upbringing because they bring themselves up. (pun intended) Sales professionals invest in knowledge, they read magazines, they can’t get enough of web portals dedicated to sales and they do invest in attending seminars and conferences. They buy books and they actually read them. And then a wonderful thing happens. They sell more, they earn more and they are more fulfilled. Here’s the common thread woven in the fabric of the professional’s success journey. They work harder on themselves than they do on their jobs. The hungrier you are for knowledge, the wiser you become. Your self-respect increases, your confidence built and opportunities come by your door waiting for you to open.
Your desire to be successful has to be bigger than a 9-5 job. Giants begin with baby steps and you should begin right now. Invest in knowledge; put the seeds in the small steps and continue to water your skills with actual experiences and information you seek. And when the time of harvesting comes, you will have the fruits of your efforts in front of you. Do not waste time. Always find something to do that would add value to what you want to achieve in life. Whatsoever you sow, you shall reap. This is Scripture Truth that continues to operate everyday of our lives.
Never forget. The road to success is marked with many tempting parking places. Say this to yourself all the time: “NO PARKING!”

Business Leadership Advice

The Qualities Of Skillful Leadership by Jim Rohn

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the great challenge of life.
What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics:
1) Learn to be strong, but not rude. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.
2) Learn to be kind, but not weak. We must not mistake kindness for weakness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.
3) Learn to be bold, but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble.
4) You’ve got to learn to be humble, but not timid. You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars. So humility is a virtue, but timidity is a disease. Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.
5) Be proud, but not arrogant. It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community. It takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact, I believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. It’s when you don’t know that you don’t know. Now that kind of arrogance is intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take.
6) Develop humor without folly. That’s important for a leader. In leadership, we learn that it’s OK to be witty, but not silly. It’s OK to be fun, but not foolish.
Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some people call it tragic, but I’d like to think it’s unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It’s fascinating. And I’ve found that the skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community and at home.
To your success,
Jim Rohn
______________
Announcing a Very Special Invitation – The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan! One of the Most Comprehensive Resource and Success Plans Ever Created For You To Reach All Of Your Goals in the Next 12 Months!
* Key points: 1. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. 2. To become a great leader one must learn to deal in realities. Deal in truth.
-What was the most important lesson you learned in the above article? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Why Change is Hard

Why Change is Hard

“Ah… change is hard and it’s not easy.” A famous line from the children’s movie that teaches adult lessons entitled: “The Lion King.”

Why is change hard? One would wonder.

SOCRATES says: "No man will change for the better until he sees the need for it."

Famous athlete and motivational speaker Dr. Ola Madsen sent me a material that is very interesting. Listen to this:

People who succeed perceive failure as feedback. They use this feedback to change their strategy and take action again. They repeat this process over and over till they get what they want.

Dr. Ola is right. I have met leaders who would never admit mistakes. They pass the blame all over the place. Pointing fingers at people, pointing fingers at circumstances and never looking at themselves in the mirror. These are people who have pre-determined in their minds that they will defend the status quo to the death.

Here are some questions to ponder:

• Why is it that so few people are willing to keep changing and taking action until they get what they want?
• Why do so many people quit along the way?
• Why do so many people even procrastinate in initiating action?

The reason is that while everybody desires to succeed, only a few are truly COMMITTED to their goals. People whose goals are nothing more than desires will only do whatever is within their comfort zone to achieve it. Beyond that, what they give themselves all kinds of excuses for not doing it.

Dr. Ola says:

5% of people are COMMITTED to succeed.

95% of people WISH, HOPE, WANT, LIKE TO succeed.

5% they make it a MUST to DO whatever it takes.

95% act within their comfort zone and give lots of excuses.

When a goal becomes a MUST we operate from a different mind-set.

I speak with HR people all the time. They say that change is difficult to achieve. It is actually not an organizational problem, it is a challenge that you and I need to face every day.

Do you know that there are 3 Certainties in Life:

1. Death
2. Taxes
3. Change

And most of us can handle the first 2 better than the 3rd one.

Sometimes I think that the only change people like is dirty diapers.

Change is impossible unless people believe it is possible.

Now here is what I have discovered.

The reason why change initiatives in organizations do not succeed most of the time is because you cannot rally people to change through a wonderfully prepared PowerPoint Presentation. People change only when they could FEEL the need to change. This is why knowledge alone cannot accomplish goals. People need to buy in to the idea that the change initiative will be for their own benefit.

It’s amazing to see that what a person knows in his or her head does not translate to action unless the felt need is there.

This is why most people I know talk about their personal relationship with Christ and when I listen to their testimonies, the new found knowledge is there but there is a great emotional expression in there as well.

So, are you equipped with the knowledge to change but more importantly, do you feel the necessity to change as well?